PICKET: Minus retiring Rep. Towns Dems save face in NY-8 primary

Democrats all over the country are breathing a sigh of relief tonight, because former New York City councilman and Black Panther Charles Barron lost the New York 8th Congressional Democratic primary to New York Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries. With over 94% of the precincts reporting, Assemblyman Jeffries crushed former Councilman Barron 72 to 28 percent.

Barron made a national name for himself spewing anti-semitic and racist rhetoric during his time in office. Barron not only received the endorsement of the local New York Sierra Club chapter and AFSCME. Mr. Barron also received the bizarre endorsement of former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Democrats scrambled to assure that the former city councilman, who once welcomed genocidal Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe to New York City Hall, would not be elected.

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Charles Barron’s vitriolic views have remained relatively consistent for years, since he served New Yorkers as a councilman in city hall. It seems as if the Democrats blasted most of their outrage against him when it appeared he could go to capitol hill, but where was this same outrage from the same Democrats over Mr. Barron ten years ago? Shouldn’t more New York Democrats have made a bigger deal about Mr. Barron before he rolled out the red carpet to a tyrannical dictator like Mugabe or said he wanted to “slap” a white person “for [his] mental health”?

Celeste Katz of the NY Daily News tweeted, “Charles Barron declines to call Hakeem Jeffries to concede #NY8 ‘because of the way the campaign was run.’ Also calls media ‘lowlife scum.’” However, Congressman Towns is the real loser in this race tonight. Barron received the endorsement of the outgoing Democratic Congressman whose seat Barron was competing for. What a way for a Congressman to go into retirement after fifteen terms in Congress.

Question of the Day

Whose side of the story do you believe?

About the Author

Kerry Picket, a former Opinion Blogger/Editor of The Watercooler, was associate producer for the Media Research Center, a content producer for Robin Quivers of “The Howard Stern Show” on Sirius satellite radio and a production assistant and copy writer at MTV.